Terminology

First Nations terminology

‘First Nations people’ is used to refer to Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people in this report. However, the AIHW acknowledges First Nations peoples comprise hundreds of groups with distinct languages, histories, and cultural traditions and therefore the preferred terminology for the use of either Aboriginal, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, First Nations people or other terminology may vary across jurisdictions.

Sex and gender terminology

This report uses the terms ‘woman’ and ‘women’ to mean ‘female' as this is consistent with terminology used in Australia’s mothers and babies and the National Core Maternity Indicators, which refer to data collected in the National Perinatal Data Collection and are based on sex. Information on gender is not recorded in this data collection. 

It is acknowledged that this report includes references to people who do not identify as women or mothers, and that individual parents and families may use different words to those used in this report. This may include women, transgender men, intersex people, non-binary and gender diverse people.

Abbreviations

Table 1: Abbreviations
AbbreviationIn full
AIHWAustralian Institute of Health and Welfare
COAGCouncil of Australian Governments
DCTData Collection Tool
MaCCSMaternity Care Classification System
MoC DSModel of Care Data Set
NPDCNational Perinatal Data Collection